The Polanyi School of Anthropology on Money: An Economist's View

Melitz, Jacques (1970): The Polanyi School of Anthropology on Money: An Economist's View. Published in: American Anthropologist , Vol. 72, No. 5 (1970): pp. 1020-1040.

Abstract

This paper questions the popular anthropological assumption that all purpose money rules in the West today. Contrary to the followers of Karl Polanyi in anthropology, modern as well as primitive money is special purpose money. It is argued further that serious difficulties and confusions arise from indiscriminate use of the term money to refer both to (1) media of exchange and means of payment and (2) units of account. Lastly, the scholarship and perspicacity of the Polanyist verdicts about economists' views in the area of money is disputed.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Polanyi School, Money, Barter
• Subjects: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E0 - General; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology

References

BARGER, HAROLD 1968 Money, banking, and public policy. Chicago: Rand McNally.

BEER, Max 1938 Early British economics from the XIIIth to the middle of the XVIIIth century. [Reprinted New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1967.]

BELSHAW, CYRIL S. 1965 Traditional exchange and modern markets. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

BLOCH, MARC 1954 Esquisse d'une histoire monétaire de l'Europe. Paris: Librairie Armand Colin.

BOHANNAN, PAUL 1955 Some principles of exchange and investment among the Tiv. American Anthropologist 57:60-70.

BOHANNAN, PAUL 1959 The impact of money on an African subsistence economy. Journal of Economic History 19:491-503. [As reprinted in Tribal and peasant economies: readings in economic anthropology. G. Dalton, ed. Garden City: The Natural History Press, 1967, pp. 123-135.]

BOHANNAN, PAUL and DALTON, GEORGE 1962 Introduction. In Markets in Africa. Paul Bohannan and George Dalton, eds. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. pp. 1-26.

BOHANNAN, PAUL and DALTON, GEORGE 1965 Karl Polanyi 1886-1964. American Anthropologist 67:1508-1511.

BUCHANAN, JAMES, and GORDON TULLOCK 1962 The calculus of consent: logical foundations of constitutional democracy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

BUCK, P. W. 1942 The politics of mercantilism. New York: Holt.

BURNS, ARTHUR R. 1927 Money and monetary policy in early times. [Reprinted New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1965.]

CANNAN, EDWIN 1896 Introduction and Notes. In Adam Smith, Lectures on justice, police, revenue and arms. Edwin Cannan, ed. [Reprinted New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1964.]

CIPPOLA, CARLO 1956 Money, prices, and civilization in the Mediterranean world. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

CODERE, HELEN 1968 Money-exchange systems and a theory of money. Man 3:557-577.

DALTON, GEORGE 1961 Economic theory and primitive society. American Anthropologist 63: 1-25.

DALTON, GEORGE 1965 Primitive money. American Anthropologist 67:44-65. [As reprinted in Tribal and peasant economies: readings in economic anthropology. G. Dalton, ed. Garden City: The Natural History Press, 1967, pp. 254-281.]

DALTON, GEORGE 1968 Introduction. In Primitive, archaic and modern economies: essays of Karl Polanyi. George Dalton, ed. Garden City: Double- day. pp. ix-liv.

DAVENPORT, WILLIAM H. 1961 Primitive and civilized money in the Santa Cruz islands. In Symposium: patterns of land utilization and other papers: proceedings of the 1961 spring meeting of the American Ethnological Society. Viola E. Garfield, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

DE ROOVER, RAYMOND 1948 Money, banking and credit in medieval Bruges: Italian merchant-bankers, lombards and money-changers: a study in the origins of banking. Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America.

DE ROOVER, RAYMOND 1957 J. A. Schumpeter and scholastic economics. Kyklos 10:115-146.

DOWNS, ANTHONY 1957 An economic theory of democracy. New York: Harper and Row.

EINAUDI, LUIGI 1937 The medieval practice of managed currency. In The lessons of monetary experience: essays in honor of Irving Fisher. A. D. Gayer, ed. pp. 259-268.

EINZIG, PAUL 1948 Primitive money in its ethnological, historical and economic aspects. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.

FEAVEARYEAR, A. E. 1931 The pound sterling: a history of English money. [2nd ed., revised by E. Victor Morgan. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.]

FIRTH, RAYMOND 1951 Elements of social organization. London: Watts.

FURNESS, E. S. 1920 The position of the laborer in a system of nationalism.

FUSFELD, DANIEL B. 1957 Economic theory misplaced: livelihood in primitive society. In Trade and market in the early empires. K. Polanyi, C. M. Arensberg, and H. W. Pearson, eds. Glencoe: The Free Press. pp. 342-356.

GREGORY, T. E. 1933 Money. In Encyclopedia of the social sciences. E. R. A. Seligman, ed. vol. 10, pp. 601-613.

HALEVY, ELIE 1928 The growth of philosophical radicalism. (French 1st ed., 1901-1904.) [Reprinted Boston: Beacon Press, 1955.]

HALM, GEORGE N. 1961 Economics of money and banking. Homewood, Ill.: Irwin.

HAYEK, FRIEDRICH 1960 The constitution of liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

HERSKOVITS, MELVILLE J. 1952 Economic anthropology: a study in comparative economics. New York: Knopf.

HUMPHREYS, S. C. 1969 History, economics, and anthropology: the work of Karl Polanyi. History and Theory 8:165-212.

JEVONS, WILLIAM S. 1875 Money and the mechanism of exchange.

JOHNSON, E. A. J. 1937 Predecessors of Adam Smith: the growth of British economic thought. [Re- printed New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1965.]

KANN, E. 1937 The currencies of China: old and new. In The lessons of monetary experience: essays in honor of Irving Fisher. A. D. Gayer, ed. pp. 363-378.

LAUGHLIN, J. LAURENCE 1903 The principles of money.

LAW, JOHN 1705 Money and trade considered: with a proposal for supplying the nation with money. [References to 2nd ed., 1720.]

LECLAIR, JR., EDWARD E. 1962 Economic theory and economic anthropology. American Anthropologist 64: 1179-1203.

LESTER, RICHARD A. 1939 Monetary experiments: early American and recent Scandinavian.

McCULLOUGH, JOHN R. 1825 Principles of political economy: with a sketch of the rise and progress of the science. MALTHUS, ROBERT 1798 An essay on population.

MILL, JAMES 1821 Elements of political economy.

MILL, JOHN STUART 1848 Principles of political economy some of their applications to social philosophy. [References to 1909 edition, Ashley, ed.]

MONROE, ARTHUR E. 1923 Monetary theory before Adam [Reprinted New York: Augustus Kelley, 1966.]

MONTESQUIEU, BARON DE 1748 The spirit of the laws.

NASH, MANNING 1964 The organization of economic life In Tribal and peasant economies: readings in economic anthropology. G. Dalton, Garden City: The Natural History 1967, pp. 3-11.

NEALE, WALTER C. 1957 The market in theory and history. In Trade and market in the early empires. K. Polanyi, C. M. Arensberg, and Pearson, eds. Glencoe: The Free Press. pp. 357-371.

POLANYI, KARL 1944 The great transformation. New York: Farrar and Rinehart.

POLANYI, KARL 1947 Our obsolete market mentality. Commentary 3:109-117. [As reprinted in Primitive, archaic, and modern economics: essays of Karl Polanyi. G. Dalton, ed. Garden City: Doubleday. pp. 59-77.]

POLANYI, KARL 1957a The economy as instituted process. In Trade and market in the early empires. K. Polanyi, C. M. Arensberg, and H. W. Pearson, eds. Glencoe: The Free Press. pp. 243-269.

POLANYI, KARL 1957b The semantics of money uses. University of Toronto. Explorations 8:19-29. [As reprinted in Primitive, archaic and modern economies: essays of Karl Polanyi. G. Dalton, ed. Garden City: Doubleday. pp. 175-190.]

POLANYI, KARL 1960 On the comparative treatment of economic institutions in antiquity with illustrations from Athens, Mycenae, and Alalakh. [As reprinted in Primitive, archaic and modern economies: essays of Karl Polanyi. G. Dalton, ed. Garden City: Doubleday. pp. 306-334.]

POLANYI, KARL 1966 Dahomey and the slave trade: an analysis of an archaic economy. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

POLANYI, KARL 1968a Appendix: notes on primitive money. In Primitive, archaic and modem economies: essays of Karl Polanyi. G. Dalton, ed. Garden City: Doubleday. pp. 190-203. [From mimeographed notes to students 1947-1950.]

POLANYI, KARL 1968b Appendix: on the history of economic thought. In Primitive, archaic, and modern economics: essays of Karl Polanyi. G. Dalton, ed. Garden City: Doubleday. pp. 190- 203 [from mimeographed notes to students, 1947].

POLANYI, KARL, CONRAD M. ARENSBERG, and HARRY W. PEARSON 1957 The place of economies in societies. In Trade and market in the early empires, K. Polanyi, C. M. Arensberg, and H. W. Pearson, eds. Glencoe: The Free Press. pp. 239-242.

PUFENDORF, SAMUEL 1672 Of the law of nature and nations.

QUIGGIN, A. HINGSTON 1949 A survey of primitive money: the beginnings of currency. London: Methuen.

RANLETT, JOHN G. 1965 Money and banking: an introduction to analysis and policy. New York: Wiley.

RICARDO, DAVID 1817 Principles of political economy and taxation.

ROBBINS, LIONEL 1952 The theory of economic policy in English classical political economy. London: Macmillan.

SCHUMPETER, JOSEPH A. 1954 History of economic analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.

SENIOR, NASSAU W. 1836 An outline of the science of political economy. [Reprinted New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1965.]

SIDGWICK, HENRY 1883 Principles of political economy. [References to 3rd ed., 1901.]

SMITH, ADAM 1776 An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations.

STEINER, W. H., SHAPIRO, ELI, and SOLOMON, EZRA 1958 Money and banking: an introduction to the financial sector. New York: Holt.

SUPPLE, B. E. 1957 Currency and commerce in the early seventeenth century. Economic History Re- view 10:239-255.

USHER, ABBOTT P. 1943 The early history of deposit banking in Mediterranean Europe. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

VINER, JACOB 1958 The long view and the short. Glencoe: The Free Press.

WALKER, F. A. 1888 Political economy. 3rd ed.

WEBER, MAX 1927 General economic history. [New York: Collier, 1961.]

YEAGER, LELAND B., ED. 1962 In search of a monetary constitution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.